CH340 Install Problem (not covered on SFE Tutorial)

Development Boards Arduino
1

Greetings,

Having discovered the [Redboard Qwiic uses the CH340 USB interface I set about installing the CH340 Device Driver on a Dell XPS8930 (as I had done earlier for the FTDI Device Drivers) No Luck! Following the [SFE Tutorial and various posts online and YouTube, I’m stumped.

The closest I have come is the correct label in Device Manager: USB-SERIAL CH341A (COM1)

In Properties Device Status “This device cannot start. (Code 10)”

I’ve exhausted all the options I can muster, does anyone have a suggestion on how to solve this frustrating problem?

Thanks In Advance,](https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/how-to-install-ch340-drivers)](SparkFun RedBoard Qwiic - DEV-15123 - SparkFun Electronics)

2

I retraced my steps, looking for obvious errors. Also, deleted the downloaded install tool, and reloaded it from [here.

I noticed that if I do an “INSTALL”, followed by an “UNINSTALL” there’s a response " No Device Found" - could it be that an install was not attempted, or failed?

In Device manager I see a new entry in “COM & LPT” called “communications port (COM1)” (in properties it has a Microsoft Driver) It doesn’t work with the RedBoard/Ch340.

I’m thinking that the WCH tool attempts to provide the right driver, but instead Win10 defaults to a generic COM1 version, not the desired WCH one.

Anyone know a work around? Can the WCH driver be installed manually?

Is it necessary to remove or edit the Win10 Registry (or otherwise delete something) that was wrong and is now blocking the correct installation?

This is not an SFE or RedBoard or Arduino problem. I’m still stuck!

Thanks In Advance,](CH341SER.EXE - 南京沁恒微电子股份有限公司)

3

Daily update - still stuck. I borrowed another PC (HP NB), downloaded the WCH tool, and ran it.

It failed to install the CH340 Driver, as was the case on my desktop PC.

However, it did generate an interesting error message:

[

Open to suggestions, as I’m still stalled!

Thanks In Advance,](CH340-15 hosted at ImgBB — ImgBB)

4

Is it possible you have a virus or malware scanner that doesn’t like something about the driver? You might try disabling that and installing the driver and see if that works.

5

Thanks for the suggestion! I do have Malwarebytes and McAfee installed. Disabling them didn’t make a difference. I may have exhausted things to try on the OS side. Will do a quick sanity check of hardware next.

6

Problem Found, Problem Solved. Hardware!

Not all of the USB-A to USB Micro B cables work, the three I had tried earlier are all “Bad” (even though they work on other hardware)

The CH340 seems very fussy about cable length (compared with the FTDI version) Even moving a “good cable” from one example of RedBoard Qwiic to a second one causes the second one to fail to connect. The most reliable cable is not the shortest that I have (1m) but the longest on hand (7m)

I don’t see any build-out resistors between the USB connector and the CH430 IC (RedBoard Qwiic), but there are 27R resistors and 47p capacitors on the earlier version (using FTDI IC) Was this intentional?

Lesson learned (the hard way)

7

Thank you for posting on the forums and providing your troubleshooting methods.

Did yo happen to know what version of the Redboard Qwiic you are currently using? I believe it should either be V10 or V20. It should be printed near the white gear keyhole silk screen symbol on the bottom of the board in a corner.